The silence after Nyserith's death was short-lived.
Hamman's expression was frozen in a strange middle-ground—half horror, half disbelief. He stood rigid as the motes of light that used to be Nyserith scattered into the dark, humid air of the chamber. Her body had vanished, completely undone, atom by atom. There was no corpse. No blood. Just fading sparks.
"You killed her... Thanks." Hamman muttered. Then, hesitantly: "But... how did you get here? And what—what are you right now?"
His voice cracked just enough.
Haki didn't answer immediately. He straightened from his crouch, brushing the tip of his index finger—the same one he had used to stop the black hole dagger. His skin was unblemished.
He walked toward Hamman slowly, each step echoing with confidence and silence.
"You're asking how I got here."
Hamman swallowed. "Yes. I didn't fully open a path for you. The gravastar stream I generated—it wasn't stabilized yet."
"I know," Haki said, simply. He stopped in front of his brother. "And I didn't need you to."
A beat passed. Hamman didn't move.
Then Haki tilted his head, brow furrowed. "You really want to know how I got here? How I arrived at the exact moment a clone of Nyserith tried to slit your throat?"
Hamman said nothing.
"Alright. Let's go back a bit," Haki said.
He waved his hand and the space they were in folded like paper.
It opened again in a few seconds, but the surroundings had changed.
Hamman's body secretly tensed. 'He brought me here without getting approval from my will'
They were now in the realm of Dreams. A scape where anything the wielder imagines would come to life, it had its limitations but it was perfect for portraying a scene to someone and Haki was about to do just that.
'What's that' Hamman thought as he saw a glitch in the air, it slowly turned into decipherable words:
[Flashback: Minutes Earlier]
The text started floating towards Hamman, slowly enlarging and soon submerged his whole vision. He then fell into somewhat of a trance…
During the call, Haki and Hamman were silent for a few seconds too long. They behaved weirdly, not from fear or awkwardness, but they were communicating.
Blink. Blink-blink.
Haki raised his left eyebrow half a millimeter. Blinked twice. Tilted his head three degrees to the right.
Hamman responded: Blink. Blink. Stare.
To any observer, they looked perfectly normal, like they were just having normal eye contact.
But the context of their communication shared a different story…
Haki:
Hamman:
Haki: < I'm coming.>
Hamman:
Haki:
Hamman:
Haki:
Hamman:
["What else do you have to say, I have work to do," Instinct said while blinking weirdly to Hamman.
"How are your insights with the soul going, have you found anything yet?" Hamman replied, while also blinking weirdly. One wouldn't notice it unless they were the one it was being directed to, but Instinct and Hamman seemed to have another conversation going on.
"No, not yet. Send me those materials right now."
"Which way should I use…?"
"Open up the passage, it's okay…"
"Mn."
Hamman raised his left hand's ring finger slowly, upon which a dark purple ring was nestled in the hologram display. A dim light then shot out of his ring and landed on Haki's own ring on his right hand's ring finger. Checking inside his space ring, Instinct found the trillions of "atoms" of a Gravastar he requested for, floating around in stable space]
Hamman:
Haki: <…>
Hamman fell into a trance, a dream like state. He saw everything as Haki had experienced it himself, this was one of the limitations of the dreamscape—Limited to the mind and experience of the wielder.
In the present…
Hamman came out of the trance after it ended, his mind was in disarray for some reason.
Haki spoke: "When you opened that gravastar pathway and sent those atoms, I embedded a checkpoint in the space-time fabric. I didn't step through immediately—I waited. Just microseconds. Long enough for the chaos to calm. Then I moved."
Hamman's eyes flickered with something. 'He refused to use the pathway I opened but instead created his own, but how? I own the communication pathway, wait, could he-'
"Took you long enough" As though he could read Hamman's mind, Haki smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. He waved his hands in the air once again as ripples spread across the Dreamscape, bringing them back to Hamman's apartment.
The floor which had been scraped due to Nyserith's "rag dolling" had healed due to the self-heal function of his house.
"So you've mastered Time-phasing, firstly, I thought you were a Primal Ascendant, then you show up in this form, integrated with so many bloodlines…what exactly are you?" he said slowly.
"No. I've mastered patience." Haki didn't answer his second question but his answer still confused Hamman nevertheless.
Another silence fell between them.
Then Hamman looked down at the last location of the motes of light again.
"She was a clone," he said.
"Of course she was," Haki replied. "I knew from the way her spirit echoed, this body has the bloodline of the Oscilloxis so I felt it. there was no real signature. Look closely at her hair and you will realize she was just a simulation of presence."
'This body? Does he mean…' Hamman's eyes widened slowly—an involuntary action, but then he realized his mistake. It was already too late.
Haki chuckled and narrowed his eyes. "You're acting."
Hamman looked up, eyebrows raised.
"You knew she was a clone before I arrived. You're just trying to gauge what I know."
Hamman chuckled nervously. "What? That's ridiculous—"
"Don't lie to me." Haki said. His tone a few degrees lower.
The temperature didn't drop. Nothing worthy of aura-farming happened.
Hamman swallowed hard. He met Haki's gaze—and for a second, the mask slipped.
But only for a second.
Haki thought it was weird, so he decided to point it out directly, he hated cutting corners, he could react in battle within nanoseconds, why was Hamman giving him clear signals of betrayal? Had he become retarded?
"Look, I don't know what you and Nyserith are planning, and honestly? I don't care, let this be the last time you ever interrupt me when working, Lad."
Haki started thinking about everything that had happened up to this point, he wasn't a fool and neither was Hamman or his mother, they clearly knew his nigh omniscient nature and yet they still did things that a 7 year old Temporal grade student would see through. To be honest? This behavior of theirs piqued his interest, his…CURIOSITY!!! And at that moment...
'*Huff* Let me out, *Huff*, let me observe, *Huff* I need to solve this puzzle and add it to my data set.' Haki's head started to pump blood faster, this was excitement when faced with a challenge.
Hell Dave: "Well would you look at that… Acca looks like he needs to change his job to Hell Dave, look how savage that smile is, MUAHAHAHA"
Heavenly Dave (in a sighing tone): "Haaaa, whenever this happens, it never ends well"
Kevide (In disappointment): "Yo! Acca, why you all sweaty and stuff all of a sudden, that doesn't look like your usual refined self, the perfect material for aura farming… what a shame…"
At that moment Haki started thinking about something, then he let Acca completely possess him.
Haki stopped thinking about it then appeared instantaneously in front Hamman, holding the side of his head with his left hand and pulling with his right hand, he ripped one of his arms out. His entire left arm was now gone.
Hamman let go of all "pretenses" and grinned. "Fine. Maybe I suspected something. She always did love decoys. But how did you survive all this time without implants, without any augmentation, no downloads, no backups? How are you even alive in that body, Haki? It's been decades." He didn't even bother looking at the severed limb Haki had just removed.
Haki walked forward a bit, looking at the cybernetic jungle-city below through the semi-transparent glass. He opened his mouth showing off his vampire-like fangs.
CRUNCH
Haki's eyes burned. "You taste so bad, even after integrating this body with the Vampire Progenitor's bloodline, my perception of the taste is still bad."
"Lad, you think immortality is preserving code? Uploading minds into metal shells? Copying consciousness like its data? That might work in some sci-fi but this is real life."
Hamman tilted his head, he almost fell due to the imbalance of his missing arm. "Isn't that what immortality is?"
"No. Not to me. Once the soul is gone, you're dead. I don't care how many backups you make."
Hamman blinked. "So then what are you now? You look like you've fused a hundred bloodlines. But the last time I saw you—you'd only integrated two. You still refused even the basics. What happened to you?"
Haki said nothing.
And that was answer enough. Or maybe it wasn't, because Hamman was about to ask more…
"Nyserith's clone has been dead for a while now, she should have taken the Recursive Time Chamber" Haki said, breaking the silence.
Hamman hadn't reacted a bit when Haki tore off his limb and ate it disrespectfully in his presence, but when he revealed this knowledge, he instantly became terrified and backed away from Haki...
"Taking your life does not benefit me in anyway, at least not now, so you can be rest assured" Haki wrapped his arm around Hamman's shoulders.
"HOW DID YOU KNOW!!!?" Hamman was truly beginning to feel fear, if the words of this man in front of him implied what he was thinking then he was truly cooked.
"I was never here" Haki waved his other hand which was holding a peace sign in his face.
He was gone.
Hamman remained, blood gushing out from his shoulder, blinking in confusion.
"Have I been double- no, Triple crossed? Wait, he can't possibly know about that too, could he...?"
This was why he always feared his big brother. Not for his power… well, partly for his power, but mostly his intelligence, he always knew too much.